THE MAGAZINE FOR PHOTO LAB, DIGITAL LAB, AND ON-SITE IMAGING PROFESSIONALS

MARCH 2002 VOL. 24 NO.3

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS*

DIGITAL Burning and Dodging•Jack and Sue Drafahl

Using the Photoshop burn and dodge tool palette, shadowand burned out problems are easily handled. The areas outside theselected areas (see left) are not affected when the tools are used.

Custom photo labs pride themselves on their ability to provide the customer with a

superior product. Often it is quality film processing because of stringent adherence to

processing specifications or final prints whose results far exceed the customer's

expectations. The difference between a normal straight print and a custom print is

often the use of special techniques called burning and dodging.

CUSTOM PHOTO LABS thatcreate great custom prints usually have a

darkroom technician who is a master of

burning and dodging techniques. Their

results are amazing considering that their

tools consist of cards with cutouts and

pieces of shaped cardboard attached to

wires.

Life just got easier, thanks to new soft-

ware tools that help the digital photo lab

emulate those traditional photo lab skills.

The burning and dodging tools mimic so

closely that traditional darkroom techni-

cians can master these digital versions in

minutes. They will feel right at home-

even the tool icons resemble their tradi-

tional counterparts. The burn tool looks

like a hand creating a hole to burn added

exposure, while the black circle and line

indicate blocked exposure in a specific

34

area. Yet, the biggest difference between

the digital and traditional versions is that

digital gives you greater control.

In Adobe Photoshop, the burn and

dodge tools are located together in the

floating toolbox. When you press the icon

for these tools, you are given the options

of burning, dodging, or desaturating using

the sponge tool. An options panel at the

top of the screen allows you to vary brush

FOCUS ON IMAGING • MARCH 2002

size, mode, exposure, and pressure (opac-

ity) of the tool.

Ready, Set...

Before you consider using any of these

tools,? you should first adjust the overall

appeir.mc•(• of the im«ij>e using the bright-

contrast, color balance, and gamma

rols. Once this is done, you can then

lyze which specific areas need the

ning or dodging. Often images requir-

this type of adjustment are portraits

ken in harsh lighting without the aid of

II flash, and portions of the face are in

eep shadow.

Zoom in on the area to be modified and

adjust the dodge tool to a workable size.

There is no rule to this adjustment, since

each situation is different. For starters, set

the tool to about 20-30 percent of the

area you plan to dodge using the brush

palette at the top of the screen. You can

also create your own brush size and shape

from the right side of the brush palette.

For the traditional darkroom technician

who uses burning and dodging tech-

niques on both negative and positive

printing paper, think of the digital process

as a negative paper. If you use the burn

tool, the area becomes darker, and dodg-

ing makes it lighter. Since most printing is

on negative paper, this should be an easy

transition.

...Go

Start with the midtone setting of the

brush and set the pressure to 20-30 per-

cent. Slowly work your way around the

area to be dodged. If it is too much, sim-

ply use the Undo or the Step Backward

function.

Don't worry about the shadow areas at

this time, just concentrate on the mid-

tones. When they look good, switch back

to the burn tool, set it to shadows with

20-30 percent pressure and take the shad-

ow areas down until they look correct.

Work your way back and forth using the

burn and dodge tools, and setting them to

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highlight, midtone or shadows until you

are satisfied.

If you want to restrict your working area,

use the select tool found in the tool box to

designate those areas you want to concen-

trate on. If you use the selection method,

we recommend the use of the feather tool

to blend the edges of your efforts.

Since the areas you are dodging have

less image detail than the corresponding

areas with lighter densities, you may end

up with some noise in the shadow areas.

Simply go in with the clone tool and fine-

tune those areas by dragging or dropping

data from corresponding areas.

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Over-Exposure Issues

Over-exposed areas are less common

and much harder to fix because often

there is little data to work with except pure

white. Of course, there will always be

some data in the white areas that can be

reduced using the burn tool. Set your burn

tool to around 20-30 percent of the area

size you plan on burning. You may even

have to create a brush larger than on the

default palette.

Set the brush to midtones with a pres-

sure of 30 percent and start working you

way around the area to be burned. When

you are happy with the midtones, go back

to the dodge tool, set it smaller, and dodge

back some of the highlight areas that went

too dark. You can limit your work area

using the selection tools, just as with the

dodge tool.

Once you start working with the burn

and dodge tools, you will find that your

success will depend on how well you

master each tool's features. Just straight

burning and dodging isn't always ade-

quate. You have to work both back and

forth between both tools using size, pres-

sure, and range. The luxury of backing up

and undoing procedures gives you maxi-

mum control when editing. Just be sure

that when you are done to save the file out

under a new name.

The sponge tool, also found in the same

toolbox, can be used when a burn or

dodge increases or decreases the color

saturation when compared to the sur-

rounding areas. You can set size, pressure,

and mode with this tool in either the satu-

rate or desaturate mode.

It is actually surprising that more digital

editors don't readily use these tools, or

realize their importance in digital editing.

It took us some time to discover their

value, but once we did, our final images

improved immensely. When used in a

commercial photo lab, it will help push

the quality of your digital custom printing

one step higher. •

Jack and Sue Drafahl are freelance writersand professional photographers living on theOregon Coast.

FOCUS ON IMAGING • MARCH 2002